Thomas Family Papers - Accession 147

The Thomas Family Papers are a valuable source of information concerning family life in Rock Hill, S.C. during the period 1920-1945. The collection includes diaries, Thomas Tours brochures, newspaper clippings speeches, financial and estate records, genealogies, menus, photographs, memorabilia and an extensive body of correspondence comprising the largest part of the collection. Dr. Roy Zachariah Thomas brought his family to Rock Hill when he assumed the position of professor of Chemistry at Winthrop College in 1914. The correspondence in the collection traces the growth of the Thomas family and the tour business, Thomas Tours, Inc., that Dr. Thomas founded in the 1920s. Letters exchanged by family members give keen insight into the following: 1) the activities offered by Winthrop Training School and Winthrop College in the 1920s and early 1930s, 2) the burgeoning tour business, 3) social events offered by Duke University in the mid-1930s, 4) life during the Great Depression, 5) the rigorous training of ROTC cadets at Clemson University during the early 1940s, 6) the accelerated training of enlisted men and officers of the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII, 7) the effects of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and 8) the growth of one of Rock Hill’s prominent families.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/manuscriptcollection_findingaids/1226/thumbnail.jp